What's Going On With Measles? The Science and Politics of Eradicating Measles

by Barbara Loe Fisher, National Vaccine Information Center

This year, the fear mongering about measles has reached epidemic proportions in America. A day doesn’t go by without media outlets publishing angry articles and editorials spewing hatred toward a tiny minority of parents with unvaccinated children, who are being blamed for measles outbreaks. 1 2 3 The remedy is always a call to track down, persecute and punish any parent whose child is not vaccinated. 4 5 6

​Some state and federal lawmakers are reacting to the relentless fear mongering by proposing to severely restrict the medical vaccine exemption and eliminate all religious and conscientious belief exemptions in state vaccine laws. 7 8 9 10 These exemptions, which help prevent vaccine injuries and deaths, also protect parental rights, civil liberties and the ethical principle of informed consent to medical risk taking. 11

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